The Future of Android Eighteen
by The Mysterious Traveller
Summary: What does the future have in store for the lovely android Eighteen after the fall of Cell? How will she cope with the death of her brother? Only time will tell... Rewritten a bit!
1. The Beginning of Android Eighteen's Time

What am I?  
Who am I?  
Why am I here?  
What was I born to do?  
Where did I come from?   
Where am I going?  
Android Eighteen's mind was tortured by her confused feelings.  
She closed her merising blue eyes as she felt the pain in her mind which had not been changed so that she would never contemplate things like this again.  
When Eighteen had asked herself why she had been 'born' she had not been thinking about the reason for why she had been given birth to by her mother.  
Oh no.  
Eighteen was wondering why the insane scientist Gero had taken she and her brother and changed them stealing away their every traces of humanity forever.  
That was simple.  
Gero had 'improved' her to kill.  
Android Eighteen had been built by him to be the vessel of his evil revenge on Son Goku the warrior who had crushed his plans to rule the world through his Red Ribbon army years ago.  
That had been his plan but the plans of a man like destiny and the passage of time do not always go as one might expect.  
Somehow the stream of fate had given Eighteen a second chance.  
Life had allowed her to walk away from the battle with the psychotic Cell who had 'eaten' Seventeen the brother she had loved and she had been able to escape still technically alive.  
But where was she supposed to go from here?  
That was the real question that had been praying at Android Eighteen's mind, a mesh of electronics and organics, for what seemed like an eternity.  
Actually it had been only a week since the fall of Cell and the heroic death of Son Goku.  
On that day many had rejoiced although the Z-Fighters a chosen few had grieved for their losses rather than celebrating their salvation.  
After Goku the hero who had single-handedly defeated the Red Ribbon army all those years ago killed the evil demon king Piccollo-Daiomuo saved the world from Raditz Nappa and Prince Vegeta who he had redeemed and turned from his violent ways and freed the galaxy from the threat of the tyrant Freeza was bound to be missed and mourned.  
Herself Eighteen did not know what to think about this great mans demise.  
The android had been given a new life to kill him but now that he was gone she just felt empty.  
And perhaps...some regret that she had not had a chance to make her peace with the Saiyan warrior brought up on earth and pure of heart.  
But this thinking was too deep for her she realised with a shake of her blonde head.  
Eighteen closed her deep blue eyes and sighed.  
She was an android.  
Cyborg.  
Machine.  
Man-made thing.  
Warrioress not created by nature.  
She had ceased to be human since that time so what right did she have to think about least of all feel tenderness towards a great man like Son Goku when she was just a...freak?  
It only made things worse for her to think of the life she had shared with her dearest brother.  
After all how could there be a heaven for a being such as she and so what did she have to look forward to when she finally went the way of her brother?  
"And what stranger approaches us now?"  
It was a female voice light high and slightly teasing in quality that brought Android Eighteen out of her deep contemplation for what she had never been intended to induldge in.  
She had been wandering along the coast line and had arrived at a yellow sandy beach while she had been thinking so deeply.  
Eighteen's eyes came to a pair of teenage girls about her own age if she had actually HAD one sitting on a few towels at the sea edge.  
They had noticed her and had all turned to gaze at her as one of them had callled out to her.  
Eighteen stared at them blankly not knowing what to say or do.  
The girls were bikini-clad and had been applying sun-oil to one antoher as she had neared them.  
"Hi!" the same girl continued when she did not reply. "You must be feeling the heat in those clothes! Why dont you come over? We have a spare bikini. Well?"  
The girls manner was friendly.  
Eighteen realised just how much she had been able to define human feelings over the past few events of a the first three weeks of her life.  
The android realised with a sudden crash of loneliness that friendship and human contact was just what she wanted above all else.  
Eighteen hesitated and then started across the beach towards he girls. 


	2. Friends for an android

Android Eighteen gave a sigh as she tossed her fine blonde hair over her bare shoulders.  
Her partly organic body was sweating a little under the heat of the sun which was particularly sweltering that day.  
Also her creator Dr Gero had fitted her body with various sensors and temperature detectors and because of this she could appreciate the feeling of the cool air playing through her hair and over her body as much as she had been able to while human.  
"Here we go." Chirped the girl with green hair and eyes producing a tiny yellow bikini.  
Eighteen acknowledged her assistance with a grateful nod as the girl helped her into the bikini.  
Her tight white top blue jacket faded blue jeans trainers and fingerless black leather gloves lay forgotten in the sand.  
The girl flipped Eighteen's hair back over her shoulders and nodded appreciatively.  
"Anyone told you that you're a real looker?" she asked cheerfully.  
"Vaguely." Eighteen answered cynically.  
She was thinking about the gang of biker morons who had engaged her and her brother Seventeen in a motor-way battle some time ago.  
At the time Eighteen had responded to their vulgar cries and wolf-whistles by raising her eye-brows.  
But now the girls question gave her mind something to think about.  
Why had Dr Gero allowed her to look the way she did?  
After all the only thing that had been on the psychotic scientists mind while forever ruining the lives of she and her brother had been the death of Son Goku.  
So why did he bother let her look human?  
He had not done so with Cell.  
As were much of the things in her life up to now such as understanding her emotions Eighteen's beauty was a mystery to her.  
An enigma to herself as she was to the world around her.  
"Come on! Let's go show the others!"  
Eighteen and the girl walked out from behind the large rock and rejoined the other two girls.  
The brunette with blue eyes and the red-head with eyes of brown looked up as they approached.  
"We're back!" chirped the green haired girl who had been with Eighteen a few seconds ago.  
The brunette who seemed to be the leader of the band of girls looked Eighteen up and down and grinned lop-sidedly. "Hey you look good in it!" Then she realised something. "Now that I think about it we don't know each others names do we? I'm Cassie by the way. What's your name?"  
"Eighteen."  
Cassie blinked not letting her puzzlement show.  
"Um right. But I was actually asking you for your name! Never mind though. After all now I wont have to ask how old you are right?"  
Her friends giggled.  
"No I mean that my name IS Eighteen." Eighteen replied levelly.  
"You have a number for a name?" the red head asked. "That's pretty weird. Um I mean weird in a good way of course!"  
"Hey leave her alone Linaly!" Cassie rebuked her. "I think it's a great name." Cassie transferred her attention back to Eighteen. "So why did your mom and dad pick 'eighteen' in particular?"  
Eighteen hesitated.  
It was becoming harder and harder to answer their questions without saying something which would prompt the girls to start asking more questions about her past.  
"Hey!" Cassie smiled realising Eighteen's discomfort. "Don't worry about it. It's in the past right?"  
"And last…" the green haired girl began.  
"But not least!" chimed Linaly.  
"…my name is Faris!"  
Eighteen blinked as three hands were held out to her.  
"Good t'meet'cha Eighteen!" Cassie Linaly and Faris chimed as one.  
  
"Will this take much longer?" Eighteen asked as closely as she could get to feeling impatient.  
"Hold still!" Faris reprimanded her. "You're making me mess up!"  
Faris took her time as she slowly applied the lipstick to Eighteen's lips.  
When Faris had asked if she could use some make-up on her Eighteen had given her permission not seeing any reason not to.  
But while she sat on the rock as Faris did her work she had plenty of time for her thoughts.  
Why were they doing this?  
Why had Cassie Faris and Linaly decided to make friends with her, a total stranger?  
Most of all though even though they did not know it she felt an inner twinge at the fact that she had been told that in an alternate future she and Seventeen had been responsible for the total collapse of civilization and the end of the human race.  
Eighteen realised that she had a long way to go before she'd be able to truly understand this strange gift that had been given to her by the short Z-Fighter who's name had been…  
"All done!" Faris screeched as she proudly clicked the top back on the lip-stick.  
As Linaly held up a hand mirror for Eighteen to see her red lips Faris waited for her to comment.  
Instead after a long pause Eighteen turned to face them all and asked. "Why are you doing this?"  
"Doing…?" Cassie left the sentence unfinished waiting for Eighteen to elaborate.  
"You know. THIS." Eighteen was serious at the best of times but now she was more than ever. "I mean you don't even know me. Why go to the trouble of trying to be my friend?"  
"Hey someone's got to. We're all alone until we realise our need for others." The philosophy sounded odd coming from Cassie but she sounded sincere. "And you look like you have a real need. I can see that you're sad about something Eighteen." Cassie's eyes and voice were sympathetic.  
Eighteen had not been used to talking to people so having someone feel sorry for her made her feel a little thrown…and a little indignant.  
But their talk was going to have to wait.  
Something was approaching them from a distance as a large cloud of sand in the air revealed to them… 


	3. Nothing deadlier than an android scorned...

"What a bunch of morons!" growled Linaly. "They just had to ruin a perfect day didn't they?"  
Linaly was referring the group of some ten or fifteen biker hooligans who had arrived on the beach their motor-cycles drowning out the relaxing sound of the sea and filling the air with clouds of gritty sand.  
However Cassie and Faris where a little more concerned about the bikers themselves rather than their obliteration of the tranquil atmosphere the girls had been enjoying for half the day.  
Eighteen just stood and watched as the bikers approached kicking up a typhoon of sand in their wake.  
Her face and eyes were calm and impassive as they came.  
Eighteen could see that they were not the same bikers who had tried to accost Seventeen and herself some time ago before the battle with Cell.  
This made no difference though.  
Eighteen could see that these guys were of the same breed as the thugs who she and her brother had met before if not worse than them.  
The girls were all on their feet as the biker gang arrived and pulled their black gritty machines to a halt.  
Their leader a tough yob in a sleeveless leather jacket which showed his muscled arms and chains running down from his dark blue trousers adjusted his dark sunglasses as he scrutinised the girls.  
Apparently he liked what he saw.  
His opinion seemed to be followed by the rest of the thugs.  
Cassie felt a deep sense of foreboding here but she refused to let it surface not wanting to give these guys the pleasure of seeing her alarmed.  
"What the hell do you bozo's want?" she demanded with an uninviting snap in her voice.  
The guy at the head of the bikers smirked in a way that made Faris feel cold inside.  
"Don't mind us." He answered in a back-street drawl which suggested that he was the sort of guy who assumed that the world knelt at his feet.  
"We can hardly do that with you and your festive friends kicking up a racket!" Faris cut in if only to seem as up to it as Cassie was.  
Linaly was keeping near the back of the group with Eighteen.  
Eighteen had said nothing at all and was the only member of the small party of girls who didn't seem perturbed by the arrival of these thugs.  
"Oh this?" the guy in the sunglasses waved back towards his pals in a flippant manner. "Me and the guys are just keeping it real. We noticed you four honeys from a way off and thought we'd come over to chill with ya and ya know…this and that."  
Linaly was now eyeing the cost-line looking for a way out of this.  
Cassie and Faris however still stood their ground without backing down although they had to realise that they were in some pretty serious shit here.  
Cassie spoke to him again with a hard voice although her heart was actually pounding.  
"Well we're real flattered " there was an inflection of sarcasm in her voice that was not lost on them "but we just don't have the time. Time of day for you that is. We were in the middle of something so if you could just turn back and…"  
"Civility cost nuthin." The guy growled his eyes gleaming behind the sunglasses. "I'm looking forward to teaching you some manners. There's so many things I could teach you kid."  
"Actually I think that I'll save my virginity for something more worthwhile." Cassie responded scornfully.  
The biker chuckled and his cohorts joined in though not a lot of them really got the punch-line at all.  
Still they chuckled along with their leader since if they hadn't then they chanced being boiled in oil.  
Man he was one mean dude!  
"Come on foxy." He leered at Cassie's cleavage. "Wanna be my eve? I'll buy you a fig leaf."  
Cassie and Faris backed off as the bikers started up their machines and circled them.  
They came to a stop with them trapped in the middle.  
Faris was grabbed by one of them who forced her to drink from his can of alcohol.  
She screwed up her eyes as the burning foul-tasting stuff forced itself into her throat causing her throat to burn and making her retch.  
Then it was time for it to end.  
Eighteen had watched from the side-lines long enough and it was now right about time for her to step in.  
It was true that she was not strictly speaking human.  
A being more a thing than a creature.  
She had no right to feel anything for anyone but Cassie Faris and Linaly had been kind to her over the last few hours.  
Something no-one else but Him had ever shown her.  
Eighteen was damned if she was just gonna sit tight and let these bastards misuse her friends.  
It seemed strange for her to think this word and it had been harder for her to say it earlier but it felt right. It worked for her mind and so she could go with the flow here.  
Linaly's eyes widened as Eighteen took a step forward her bare feet treading silently on the warm sand.  
"Don't!" she nearly squeaked such was her alarm.  
Linaly grabbed Eighteen's arm to stop her from leaving but she continued on regardless.  
Something in the way Eighteen did this caused a great tide of shame to rise within Linaly.  
If Eighteen could do it then why shouldn't she?  
Following the example of this enigmatic beauty she had only known for five hours Linaly followed Eighteen.  
The leader of the bikers stopped his machine as he saw Eighteen approach.  
"Hey whassup?" he asked as Eighteen stopped in front of him. "You wanna play with us?" his eyes slithered down to her bikini only just covering what was necessary and accenting her natural line perfectly.  
"You might say so." Eighteen responded coyly speaking for the first time in fifteen minutes. "So lets play!"  
Eighteen disappeared.  
Or at least that was what she seemed to do to the eyes of the bikers who froze in an instant but actually she was moving at the speed of light and so their untrained eyes couldn't see her.  
The leader of the thugs didn't know whether he was coming or going.  
It all seemed like a horrible dream to him as Eighteen re-appeared behind him and buried her knee in his back felling him to the sand in a breathless state.  
There was a breathless silence as Cassie Faris Linaly and the bikers stared at the fallen goon retching for breath.  
"Cool!" breathed Faris.  
"Make that frozen solid." Cassie responded.  
Then the guy in the sunglasses (Now by the way covered in the sand until he gave them a poor rub-down) was up on his feet staggering but pretty angry!  
His leadership of the bikers was at an end if he let Eighteen get away with this.  
"Gotta hand it to ya!" he snarled clutching his back which he was sure must now have a dent in it. "No-one else ever managed to pull one like that on me!"  
Eighteen sneered for the first time in what felt like eons. "It was easy!"  
It felt good!  
He made no response.  
Only Eighteen noticed that his hand snuck into his pocket for a knife.  
When he looked back up again she was nowhere to be seen.  
Then a sudden weight on his back forced him face down in the sand.  
Eighteen tutted from where she stood with one foot on his back.  
She backed off as he flung himself to his feet his eyes full of the fires of hell.  
"FUCK YOU!" he roared flinging himself at her.  
He never made it within a feet inches from where he stood.  
Eighteen came forward quicker than anyone could see her thrusting her knee into his gut and striking him quickly beneath the chin as he gasped.  
The leader of the bikers collapsed hopelessly.  
He was out of the fight.  
A glance at the other bikers revealed to her that they were not all that inclined to join in on his behalf.  
"I'd really recommend that you leave now." Eighteen said matter-of-factly.  
It was all she need to say.  
Having seen what she had done to their leader they couldn't leave fast enough.  
Slinging him over their front bike the group of thugs took off along the beach again back the way they had come.  
The other girls gathered around Eighteen as they watched them go.  
"Bye! Send us a post-card!" Cassie called after them.  
"Sweet dreams sucker!" Faris's called was directed at the leader of the biker.  
Hearing Faris Cassie turned to her concern evident in her eyes.  
"You alright?" she asked.  
"I think so." Faris spat onto the sand and made a face. "Though I think I might have dragon-breath for the rest of the day. We got any water with us?"  
Linaly kept quiet.  
The others hadn't noticed her hesitation to join in the fight and she didn't want to draw attention to that fact.  
Meanwhile Cassie's attention had focused on Eighteen.  
"Eighteen you wild-girl!" she laughed. "Why didn't you tell us?"  
"Tell you what?" Eighteen was confused as she had been expecting her to ask how the hell she had learnt to fight like that.  
"The way you beat that guy. You moved so fast. You're a Z-FIGHTER right?"  
  
  
Next chapter comin right up. 


	4. An android's tears

To her justice Eighteen could have encouraged Cassie's mistake.  
If Cassie thought that she was a Z-Fighter and the others followed her mistaken belief then who was she to argue?  
After all wouldn't it be easier to keep up the pretence than to tell them the shocking truth about herself?  
That she was an android.  
Something that was no longer human.  
Changed and twisted by a scientific genius and madman to exterminate the warrior known as Son Goku who in a possible future had exterminated the human race and reduced the world to a smoking ruin?  
Eighteen had changed since the day she and her brother had stepped out of their cold storage caskets but would that make any difference to her new friends if…?  
Better to live the lie.  
What would her new found friends say if they learnt the truth?  
Eighteen tried hard to content herself with this new twist of events and let Cassie Faris and Linaly go on thinking that she was a Z-Fighter not a…monster.  
It was impossible.  
She knew it even before she made the attempt but she still tried to live out the charade as if it were true.  
What Eighteen knew however was that the girls had been kind to her and that she owed them the truth.  
This had all flooded through her confused mind much earlier in the day.  
It had been just after the bikers attack and Cassie's misled proclamation that she had guessed that Eighteen was a Z-Fighter.  
The sun had been going down.  
Sinking deep past the horizon and burning into the peaceful ocean.  
So lovely.  
It had made Eighteen forget for a while about her dearest late brother Seventeen…about Dr Gero…Cell…  
And Z-Fighters.  
Particularly THAT Z-Fighter.  
The one who had changed her forever.  
Shown her the way.  
The short one with the domino spots on his forehead and wearing an orange GI.  
Eighteen closed her eyes as she stopped herself from thinking abruptly.  
She had to let go of that.  
That kiss had meant nothing.   
She'd just meant to tease him but as she'd done it she'd felt something strange.  
Eighteen had realised then that she liked Kuirin.  
She'd giggled inwardly at the look of shock on his face followed up quickly by the dreamy ecstasy.  
There was again!  
Eighteen tried her hardest in one effort to forget about Kuirin.  
After all she'd never see him again…right?  
She believed not but then why was there a part of her that mocked her with a 'don't be so sure!'?  
"Eighteen?"  
Eighteen's eyes flicked open.  
She was lying on a bed in a room of Cassie's large caravan by the sea.  
Cassie had lent her some clothes earlier to change out of the bikini.  
Eighteen was now clad in an orange crop-top short denim trousers which ended with stylishly frayed edges sandles and a few gold rings which held back her fine blonde hair.  
Something long and a little curly was lowered near to her face and moved slowly from side to side tickling her nose.  
Cassie giggled as Eighteen sat up.  
"Will I have to do that whenever I want your attention?" she asked flippantly as she regarded Eighteen in the dimly lit room.  
Eighteen's response was non-verbal but immediate.  
She thrust herself upward throwing Cassie off and landing on her grabbing her wrists.  
She never did know why she'd done that.  
Cassie responded easily rolling side-ways so that Eighteen found that their positions had been reversed and that Cassie was now grinning down at her playfully rather than the other way round.  
Eighteen guessed she ought to have felt annoyed but…  
But…instead she felt as if for once she was actually having fun!  
Just as gamely as Cassie Eighteen flipped up and had quite a struggle on her hands to keep up as Cassie resisted quite well for a full blooded human.  
In the end Cassie was beneath her once more breathing hard.  
"Why don't…you and…I go for….a chat?" she suggested between gulps for air.  
  
The air was refreshing after the tussle they had had just now.  
There was quite a cool and pleasant breeze playing across the grass as Cassie and Eighteen sat on the front lawn bench.  
The sea a short distance away was dark but sparkled quite prettily.  
There were little stars in it!  
"It's quite late." Eighteen said not knowing why sitting down on the bench.  
She supposed that it was just something to say.  
"Does that worry you?" Cassie asked blandly as she dropped down to sit by her.  
"Not really." Eighteen shrugged it off.  
They sat there in silence for a while longer.  
Cassie the one who had invited her an almost total stranger back to her place after only knowing her for a few hours.  
Eighteen the guest who had previously decided that she was unworthy to live among the 'normal' people and had for some reason found herself suddenly wanting nothing more than to have friends.  
"You know you never really answered my question on the beach today." Eighteen said after a while.  
"Your question?" Cassie asked this quite coyly but she knew exactly what she was talking about.  
Cassie certainly was a strange one.  
She did things and said stuff that she didn't seem to have any reason for.  
If she did then she kept them locked in her mind and wasn't telling.  
"You know." Eighteen insisted. "Why go out of your way for me?"  
Cassie sighed but there was no annoyance in it.  
"Always the questions!" she remarked turning to look at eighteen completely. "You have so much unsatisfied curiosity."  
"I hate an unsatisfied curiosity." Eighteen responded coyly.   
"You'll live." Cassie responded.  
"Oh no you don't." Eighteen moved so that she gazed into cassie's eyes. "I want you to give me an answer to my question."  
"Why not just enjoy the question?" Cassie murmured.  
"You're impossible!"  
"I try."  
They sat in silence for a while watching the dark waves of the sea shining in unison with the stars.  
"Why don't you try answering MY question?" Cassie asked presently.  
Eighteen gave her a look.  
"Why not?" she agreed. "Fire away!"  
"It's kinda out of left field. But this is it." Cassie turned to face Eighteen again.  
Eighteen realised that there was now a quality she had never seen in Cassie's eyes during the short time she'd known her.  
Was it…compassion?  
Eighteen found it hard to remember what each individual emotion was these days.  
"What are you sad about Eighteen?" Cassie asked quietly but there was a strength belying her tone.  
"Mmm?"  
"You know what I mean. I saw it in your eyes when you asked me your question and I replied. Something happened to you in the past. Something that changed your life. But not necessarily for the greater good." Cassie's eyes shone in the star-light. "What was it?"  
Eighteen was lost for words.  
"Go in. You can tell me. I promise I wont tell anyone else what you say." Her voice was persuasive. "It'll be in confidence between you and I Eighteen. Just let the words come."  
This was it.  
Eighteen swallowed as she realised that the time had come.  
She had hoped it would be later but that had not been so.  
She had to tell Cassie the truth about herself.  
She owed it to her.  
Cassie watched her and was able to spot the exact point in time when Eighteen lost the struggle to keep quiet and lost.  
"Cassie…I'm not a Z-Fighter." Eighteen blurted suddenly.  
"No?" Cassie inclined her head to a side inviting her to continue.  
The words came pouring out.  
Being human in those happy days alongside her brother in those days long long in the past.  
The day he and she had stumbled upon Dr Gero's secret laboratory in the forest.  
Being captured.  
The experiments and enchancements he'd made on them.  
What he'd stolen from them forever.  
The day she and her brother had been released from their captivity when Gero had been cornered by the Z-Fighters and finally taken their revenge on him.  
Fleeing with a fellow android.  
Various battles with the Z-Fighters.  
The battle with the Kami fused Piccollo in which her brother Seventeen had nearly been defeated.  
Although perhaps it would have been better if he had.  
For then had come the turning point in their lives.  
Cell has arrived and mercilessly devoured Seventeen to make himself one step further to being complete.  
The look of terror in her brothers eyes as he had become 'one' with Cell would always stay with her.  
It had been nightmarish when Cell had used Seventeen's face and voice to try and tempt her into becoming one with him.  
She had been tempted.  
Somehow she'd resisted knowing her brother would never order her to lose her freedom…life.  
Then came the finale.  
She had finally been absorbed by Cell herself.  
The last thing she had heard had been Kuirin's desperate screams as she had been 'eaten' by the devilish beast.  
Then the story was over and there was sitting next to Cassie trembling back in the present.  
Because she'd never left.  
Cassie had listened in silence not seeming to react to Eighteen's admission that she was something not entirely human.  
It had not bothered her.  
Eighteen was not sure how to take this at all.  
There was a strange burning sensation behind her eyes.  
It was familiar…something from her old life.  
Tears?  
"Cassie…." She fell into Cassie's arms as Cassie held her close to her.  
Comforting her.  
Cassie looked into the darkened sky with something like regret in her eyes.  
"Eighteen…" she murmured.  
Cassie knew what the problem was.  
But there was nothing she could do to make it better.  
To make the pain go away.  
All she could do was sit with Eighteen as she sobbed silently.  
This she resolved to do…whenever Eighteen needed her.  
  
  
Next chap comin up!  



	5. Even an android can know friendship

"Wakey wakey…"  
"…rise and shine!"  
Eighteen was awakened without ceremony.  
After she had sat with Cassie sobbing violently for a few hours Cassie had managed to ease her into sleep.  
To this moment Eighteen found it unbelievable that she had let herself get that way.  
She'd been reduced to tears like some wide-eyes school girl.  
She had never let herself get like that in her whole life.  
Nor her previous one.  
Eighteen remembered how she'd sobbed loudly and the way the tears had flowed down her face staining her clothes.  
Eighteen had always found this kind of raw emotion in herself unacceptable.   
She had no idea but she'd always been like that.  
As Faris dragged apart the curtains letting in the light Eighteen grimaced averting her eyes.  
As she fixed her eyes on the blanket covering her knees she allowed herself a bitter smile.  
That night she had dreamt during her the little sleep her fitful night had permitted her.  
this was something she'd thought was well past her.  
Her brother had always denied that he had dreams claiming that they were for the guilty.  
Funnily enough the dream had been about the past life she had shared with him before they had had their humanity torn away from them.  
Dreams were rare to her these days and she had cursed mentally when she had been woken by the others since this one had allowed her a glimpse into her lost life.  
Eighteen supposed that in a strange little way she'd always been little more than a machine.  
Perhaps it had been because her brother had treated with scorn whenever she'd let her female nature show when they were children.  
However much she'd tried to toughen herself up he had always seen her more as a woman than as his sister.  
In the end she had found an unusual way to try to get his approval.  
Eighteen had begun to deny herself.  
Feeling give him cause to love her more she had not allowed herself her woman-ness.  
She'd denied herself her tears any gentleness.  
She had denied her feelings.  
Now she had no idea how to see herself and the more she thought about it the less inclined she felt to try.Eighteen had lost touch with her true self long before she and her brother had come into contact with Gero.  
All that sadist had done to her was to erase the very last traces of her humanity.  
In seeking her brothers approval and in Dr Gero's manipulation of her Eighteen knew that she had become a ghost.  
A ghost of crumbling stone.  
"Come on!"  
Eighteen had been thinking enough to fill volumes but actually her thoughts had only filled the time it had taken for Linaly to wake her up and Faris to yank open the curtains.  
There was no more time to think as Faris pulled her out of bed and Linaly placed a hand between her shoulders pushing her through the doorway.  
Her nostrils twitched as she arrived in the living quarters but she did so with pleasure.  
Cassie was at the gas cooker turning over fried bacon in a pan.  
As Faris and Linaly walked in Eighteen took a seat and took a moment to study Cassie from behind for s moment or two.  
"Breakfast anyone?" Cassie asked without turning her head.  
"Please." Faris chirped as she and Linaly dropped down next to Eighteen on the sofa. "What is there?  
"Anything so long as you like bacon." The bacon in question sizzled as Cassie dropped it on its other side. "With milk or without?"  
Finishing the cooking of the meat Cassie placed enough on plates for three helpings.  
With a plate in each hand and a third balanced between them she trotted over to the sofa.  
As she took her plate Eighteen noticed that she had only made enough for she Linaly and Faris.  
When she mentioned this Cassie simply replied that she wasn't hungry.  
Cassie gave Eighteen an enigmatic wink and giggled inwardly at the startled blink Eighteen gave in response as she threw herself down into a comfy chair.  
Eighteen couldn't understand why Cassie was acting as though nothing had changed between them.  
She'd told her the truth about herself.  
Admitted that she was an android, something no longer human in the conventional sense.  
In the overwhelming tide of self-loathing that had overwhelmed her as she had related her bitter past she'd hardly noticed Cassie's reaction.  
Now Cassie was acting like nothing had happened.  
Didn't Cassie think that Eighteen was a…monster?  
Instead she treated her more like a person than ever.  
"You know" Faris remarked to her suddenly. "we never really had the chance to get to know you yesterday did we? Why not tell us a little about yourself while we're all gathered?"  
Eighteen nearly choked on her mouthful.  
"I'm all for it!" Linaly enthused as she finished her bacon. "Go ahead Eighteen!"  
"Why don't you guys go to the beach for a while? Cassie cut in before Eighteen had a chance to reply. "We'll catch up with you later."  
"Where are we going?" Eighteen asked grateful to Cassie for changing the subject.  
"We're gonna get you some new clothes. By the look of it you wore the clothes you came in for a few weeks solid!"  
You hit the nail right on the head there Cassie, Eighteen thought.  
But she'd caught her breath at the prospect of going clothes shopping after so long.  
"That's settled then." Cassie went on not giving anyone a chance to object. "Catch you later Linaly. Chow for now Faris!"  
Linaly and Faris agreed albeit a little huffily.  
It was as though Cassie wanted them out of the way for some reason!  
  
"Thanks Cassie." Eighteen said.  
Her voice was strangely humble.  
"Uh-huh."  
Cassie was not really listening.  
She stood behind Eighteen with a tape-measure in her hands.  
Eighteen was standing in front of a full-length mirror in her underwear.  
She didn't really mind Cassie.  
After all she WAS another woman.  
"Oh sorry?" Cassie exclaimed looking up as she realised Eighteen had said something.  
"I said thank you." She repeated. "You…that is…doesn't it bother you that I shouldn't be alive? I mean I rightfully died a long time ago. It's not as if I'm really here."  
"That's crap." Cassie's reply as instant and emphatic. "You ARE real Eighteen. As I live and breath."  
"And you kept my secret…" Eighteen persisted almost desperate to find some reason for Cassie not to be so loyal to her.  
"I promised. You told me it in confidence Eighteen. I'll never tell anyone else unless you give me your permission. Kay?"  
Eighteen was lost for words.  
She fiercely told herself that she deserved no such loyalty.  
Nor the friendship given by a human.  
It was strange to feel that she had these things but it felt kind of…nice.  
"So now that that's out of the way" Cassie's voice had a business-like tone. "Which shall it be?"  
Eighteen's eyes drifted over to the heap of clothes they'd brought into the store changing cubicle.  
"Mmm." It was a tough call. "I think I'd like…"  
  
  
Next chapter comin right up. 


	6. An Android's Nemesis

Author Notes – Wow, after all this time, I finally pick up this narrative again! It was yonks ago that I began this tale but strangely, as I returned to it over the weekend, the writing this brand-new chapter seemed to flow somehow. Kind of like the sea by the beach…

**An Android's Nemesis**

The lone biker felt every single one of the tiny rivers of perspiration that coursed their way out through the pores in his skin, felt each silvery trail of salt-flavoured bodily fluid as distinctively as though it was a drop of precious blood escaping through a hole that had been forcibly made in his flesh – each unsavoury rivulet was alight like a streak of fire beneath the glare of electrical light that shone over his head in a decidedly discomfiting way.

He yearned to squint and afford his eyeballs (which were bloodshot due to the excessive nature of his daily booze intake) just a FRACTION of protection from the light that was so harshly intimidating that it strongly reminded him of the many occasions he'd found himself sitting on the wrong side of the desk in a Police Interrogation-Room – in frankest honesty with himself, he actually found himself wishing that that was precisely where he could be right at this moment.

No such luck – the unpleasantly hot light came not from a small tabletop lamp which every Police Station known to man seemed to be issued with but from the brand spanking new light-bulb that had been screwed into the socket that dangled limply from the cracked and dilapidated ceiling, occasionally swaying.

And the reason that he denied himself the small relief of protecting his eyes against the garish light was one and the same as the cause for the desire he felt, sitting in the pit of his gut like a mound of soggy batter hastily wolfed down after breakfast beer, to be anywhere on the globe…anywhere other than in this room.

This deeply intense yearning for escape was not connected to any inclination toward claustrophobia – mentally deficient as even he couldn't have denied himself to be, he'd never suffered from that irrational fear and anyway the possibility was ruled out from the offset by the wide and open space afforded by the vast chamber-like room he so wanted not to be standing in right at this second.

Nor was it rooted in a fear of the darkness all around him – he hadn't been scared of shadows, whether engendered by the gradual descent of night or guarded eternally within the many undreamed of fissures and grottoes tucked away within the bowels of the earth, since he'd left the stage of pissing in his pants and at any rate the aforementioned and fully functional light-bulb kept steadily at bay whatever possibility for fear the shadows of this hated room may have held.

Not in the least…or, as the perspiring hood would have personally put it, no way in hell.

The nauseatingly unsettled sensation that saturated his very being with an almost superstitious fear of this place was rooted in firm and unshakeable reality…the firm and unshakeable reality of the solitary person who was seated in front of him.

This person whose eyes bore through his skull as he lived and breathed would have made the illusion of helpless entrapment shrink into sheer insignificance – this person would have made the darkness itself afraid had she brushed up against it.

The thug knew damned well the power that she held – it was this knowledge, the same knowledge that commanded the awe and respect of the army of thugs and hoodlums standing with their backs against the smooth grey expanse of the concrete walls that gave this room shape and form, that cursed him with his present intense case of the cold sweats and filled with a screaming terror in her mere presence.

It was the greatest power that one human being could have over another human being – it was the power of life and death.

"…and that's all she wrote." The last remaining member of the motorcycle gang that had messed with Eighteen and the girls and come off distinctly the worse for wear as a result concluded his full, extensive, self-flattering report of the situation that had begun, gradually unfolded and ultimately climaxed on the beach with his peers victimising a group of apparently defenceless females and getting their tails thoroughly waxed by one of their number. "Last I saw of em, the rest of the boys were hauling ass to some other area – I guess they wanted to put the miles between their backs and that blue-eyed psycho blonde into triple digits or something. The only guy who came back was me…"

Over the course of the story, the woman seated composedly on the burnt-out oil-barrel had listened in silence – silence so powerfully charismatic in itself that it seemed almost to form a vast and invisible that could and would, should he manage to irk her with a misjudged word or out-of-line sentiment, smash him into oblivion in the time it took a heart to beat.

The woman who inspired such an incredible level of loyalty (or perhaps it was simply terror) in every man in this room was, from the scant details that one was able to discern at close quarters, distinctly young – yet she was endowed by a bloom of lush maturity that was undeniable.

The crimson mask that she wore at all times bore a strong resemblance to that of a Mexican Wrestler, covering the top half of what must have been a beautiful face judging by the pair of smouldering and pouting lips that one upside-down triangular slit bared to the gloom-filled room – this mysterious human female was The Red X, undisputed and dreaded leader of the legions of scum that even now stood in rows on either side of the make-shift throne on which she was seated, a warrior whose ruthless and merciless wielding of power had blighted so many innocent lives and punished even those who had pledged undying loyalty to her in this very room.

As her voice addressed him, the sole remaining member of the biker gang cringed before a darkness that was much more substantially malevolent.

"Quite a distinction in the boldness category." The Red X's voice was as rich and light as the sun in a summer's day sky – every man in this room had come to learn, however, that at any moment it might suddenly turn white-hot and burn them. "While, at the same time, regrettably lax in the sense department. Well now…it seems that my reign is challenged."

Into the edge of her voice had crept a coolness that was practically sterile – allowing the biker an opportunity to see just how much sweat he could collect in his boots before he received rough justice, The Red X contemplated the situation with which she had been presented.

Over a year ago, shortly after the emergence and ascendance of Cell, she had made her first appearance in the shadowy criminal underworld – during those infamously bloody days, many sinister cartels and alliances had crumbled like cookies in her iron fist as she had taken on all challengers and absorbed all remaining survivors into her own budding empire.

Ever since then, having set up a base and training-centre in this abandoned old warehouse, she'd felt her mind drawing closer and closer to its state of final readiness – the dawn of the day on which she would be ready, strong enough and deadly enough to step out of the darkness and TAKE dominion.

All of this had her cold and calculating mind felt assured of – until the arrival of the ravishing, Amazonian young woman whose defiance and humiliating defeat of her adversaries had cast the glorious light of The Red X's certain triumph into the shadows of deepest doubt.

As a curveball this was unexpected, unplanned for…and utterly intolerable.

If this arrogant interloper was determined to dispute the superior might of The Red X…then she must fall before the superior might of The Red X.

"Before the day is out…I want this beauty standing in front of me." The criminal empress' voice sounded cold and metallic, like the blood of a long-stiffened corpse found lying in a ditch. "At my leisure, she will receive her sentence for the crime of presuming to defy me." It was surely a tick of the insufferable light but, as she gently and prettily cooed these words, the eye-pieces of her scarlet mask seemed to glow like burning embers. "Humiliation, destruction…and oblivion. These are the three leagues of the journey on which I will be her guide…the journey that awaits any who are reckless enough to throw the gauntlet down before me."

"Yeah, yeah! Sounds pretty damn sweet!" grinned the biker who clenched his fist in eager enthusiasm, clearly pumped by the image of the blue-eyed blonde being dragged here to receive her punishment for having humiliated him in front of the guys. "I can't wait to watch…"

Her soft and velvety voice cut him off, sharp, swift, efficient. "YOUR fate, on the other hand, was sealed from the instant you crossed the brink of my stronghold." Her rich red-silken cloak, which she wore in the manner of a shroud, opened up. "The penalty for shaming The Red X…"

An elegant hand, the fingernails of which were painted a dark-red that shimmered like wine, moved and the streak of silver that suddenly flashed was not any kind of liquid at all – it was in fact a five-inch long needle comprised of cold steel.

The biker had just the split-second that his brain required to register the tiny sliver of metal cutting a path through the air as it shot directly at him – as the second was concluded, his brain was pierced by the needle's razor-sharp tip and the start of the following second was marked by his instantaneous death.

As the body crumpled over like the limp bag of flesh and bones it had just been rendered, The Red X indicated with a dismissive wave of her throwing-hand for her minions to clear it away. "…is instant severance." She concluded her sentence vaguely, abstractly, already bored by the matter.

She was totally preoccupied by mental images of the young woman who had aroused her vengeful wrath…the young woman whose heart-stopping beauty, born grace, incredible power and unmatched prowess in combat (described by the piece of refuse whose time on this earth had just been cut brutally short) could belong to none other than the one and only Android Eighteen.

Behind the blood-red mask, her eyes narrowed in brooding rancour as she faced the very real threat that Eighteen's presence in the area held for her future plans…and reminisced venomously about the past event that bound the two of them together for as long as both of them lived beneath the same sky.

It was time to severe the bond that The Red X shared with Android Eighteen forever…and in order to do that she must first draw her hated rival into her world.

And the criminal empress had just the carrot-on-a-stick she needed in order to make the task mere child's play…

"This is weird, right here…" murmured Faris, more to herself than for the benefit of her friend.

"Mmm?" Linaly looked up as she caught the softly spoken comment.

Ever since leaving Cassie's trailer earlier that day, the girls had been strolling along the beach which was as peacefully tranquil as it had so far been every day of this summer – Linaly had been perfectly at ease as she'd chatted away even though she hadn't been able to shake off the feeling that Faris was feeling preoccupied this afternoon.

"Y' know…you've not been yourself since morning." Linaly remarked, "What's on your mind, honey?"

"Nonsense." Muttered the green-haired girl as she stared directly at the expanse of glittering water that rolled off across the horizon, not wanting meet her friend's eyes at present. "I'm always myself."

"What's gotten you into such a gloomy n' moody demeanour, sister?" Linaly smiled – whatever the issue was she could see that it was clearly troubling her friend and so she felt unwilling to let it go. "C'mon! A problem shared is a problem halved, as they say!"

Faris just shook her head – holding it high, she did not allow it to drift from the shining surface of the sea for so much as a second.

If there was one thing that Linaly disliked it was being ignored. "What the hoo-ha is wrong with you today, Faris?" she demanded – with the reflex of a greased-up snake, she reached out and took hold of her friend's arm, turning the other girl back to face her. "Are you going to tell me or are am I going to spend the rest of the day annoying you by asking until you do?"

Faris was scowling darkly as she snatched back her arm – that was unusual. "You really want me to explain what's bothering me?" she exclaimed – she stepped back and held her bare arms out wide. "It's this place! It's this feeling in the air all around me! Can't YOU feel it, Linaly? This sense that something's hanging over us all? It's like…it's like…the calm before a storm!"

Linaly was taken aback by the intensity of her friend's outburst, "Are you STILL worried about those guys?" she ventured, surprised by the wariness she heard in her own tone. "Faris, do you really think that they'd come anywhere near here after the way Eighteen handed them their asses? Forget them already!"

"I've forgotten them entirely ACTUALLY." Faris responded irritably – a thoughtful look had crossed her face. "But…now you come to mention it, was what happened yesterday really REAL? It…just feels like something out of a dream."

Linaly knew at once what her friend was referring to, "Who would ever have thought that Eighteen had it in her?" she nodded, "When we first met her, she was so quiet – she gave off an aura that just screamed 'I don't wanna talk about it!'. But when things heated up…"

Linaly's voice trailed off as she became lost in the reflections of the astounding spectacle she had borne witness to on the previous day…

"Talk about a lioness disguised as a lamb, right?" Faris summed up what they were both thinking, nodding her own head.

"And did you hear that pussycat ROAR?" Linaly grinned as she remained the extent to which their newfound friend had kicked butt.

"Hmm, well…I've got to say that I'm still not one hundred percent sure about her." Faris muttered – her eyes narrowed ever so slightly as she thought about Eighteen.

"What do you mean?"

"WELL…it's just that we know so very little about her. I mean, she just comes out of nowhere and all we know about her is her NAME. If it's her REAL name…" Faris wrinkled her nose as she decided to voice a suspicion that had been growing in her mind over the last two days. "But I bet that CASSIE…" she trailed off, seeming to lose what nerve she'd managed to work up.

"What ABOUT Cassie?"

"Come on, Lin! Look at the facts – remember how, when Eighteen turned up yesterday, Cassie invited her to join us just like that? She just asks over a total stranger who hasn't so much as breathed a word in our direction!" Faris argued as she looked Linaly straight in the eye.

"Oh, you know Cassie – she just felt Eighteen's loneliness and invited her over, that's all."

"That's what YOU think. Wanna know what I think?"

Linaly smirked, feeling amused and exasperate both at once. "Do tell." She invited, placing her hands upon the sides of her hips.

"You know and I know what a weird name 'Eighteen' is…it's not even a proper name!" Faris snorted, rolling her eyes eloquently.

"So what's the ingenius theory, O Mistress of Mystery?"

"I think that Cassie knows Eighteen from sometime before…and that Eighteen has amnesia." Faris extolled solemnly and then looked offended when her friend burst into laughter, "What?" she demanded crossly, "What's so out there about that? I once read about a girl who got into a car-crash and lost her memory – the guy who saved her life decided to call her 'Tuesday' because that was the day it all happened!"

"Mmm…I think I heard about that as well." Linaly chuckled as she thought about the novel she'd once seen her friend reading – as well as giving a new name to the amnesiac heroine, the hero of the story had also romanced her throughout nineteen sizzling chapters and it seemed that the bite of fantasy had infected Faris. "So, like, what then? You think that our girl got involved in a car-accident on the eighteenth of whenever-it-was that whatever-it-was happened…that we don't know actually happened?"

"Come on, Linaly, it's possible! Why else would Cassie invite someone she'd just met to spend the night at her place? Why'd she hint oh-so-subtly that we ought to leave just as we'd begun asking our new friend questions about herself?"

"Well then…" Linaly sighed in mock regret – she had spotted the largest flaw in Faris' fanciful theory several minutes ago and had been waiting only for the ideal moment to bring it up. "…can you explain THIS to me if that's so possible? If Cassie had known her before yesterday…why did she ask for her name?"

The silence that followed this coolly uttered question was deep and sheepish – tilting her head, Linaly watched Faris opening and closing her mouth, her cheeks blooming a deep red.

She almost laughed out loud – never before had she seen her friend look so utterly beaten!

Then Faris made an effort to rally again, "Well why else would she become so involved with a total stranger?" she demanded petulantly, a note of sarcasm creeping into her voice as she went on. "Because she's a good looking girl who looks cute in a skimpy bikini?"

Linaly said nothing in response – her eyes had just lowered and she was staring, seemingly fascinated, at her toenails.

"What?" Faris demanded, confused her friend's reaction. "WHAT?"

Linaly raised her eyes until they were level once more with those of her friend – taking a deep breath she decided to go for it. "Have you ever watched Cassie when we go nightclubbing, Faris? Have you ever seen her let herself be picked up by a guy?" as Faris blinked, she went on. "And take Eighteen. Those stunning blue eyes of hers…that perfect skin…blonde hair that the best models would make themselves mentally ill for." Her eyes were no longer avoiding her friend's but gazing directly into them and burning with meaning as she awaited a response to HER theory.

They had switched roles now – and this time it was Linaly who was pitching something to Faris, something that the latter found impossible to accept.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Faris burst out, her face turning starkest white and then deepest red. "You can't seriously be suggesting that…"

"Oh, I'm not suggesting anything." Linaly said as she folded her arms, "I'll tell you this much though; Cassie's a strange one, unfathomable. I've never been able to work her out."

"You're wrong…you must be wrong!" Faris stammered, her mind still reeling from the impact of what her friend had just pitched at her.

"What's wrong, Faris?" Though she remained calm, Linaly's eyes glittered with the hint of imminent fire. "Would it be a problem as far as you're concerned?"

"No, of course not, but…"

"Are you sure?" Linaly pressed, her tone mercilessly pleasant. "I mean, after all, it isn't every day you realise one of your friends may be…"

"No, honestly Linaly, it wouldn't bother me at all!" Faris felt more uncomfortable beneath the other girl's stare than she had surrounded by the bikers.

"Good."

With this the girls resumed their stroll – Linaly, however, could feel the tension that burned in the air that floated between herself and Faris.

"Hey you guys!"

The girls stopped and allowed their eyes to follow that voice back to its source. "Aha! Here come enigmatic Cassie and our mysterious cutie now!" Linaly exclaimed.

Sure enough, Cassie and Eighteen were walking toward them across the warm sand – they had changed back into their bikinis and Linaly noticed that Cassie was carrying a sports-bag, the strap slung across her shoulder.

"So…" Cassie smirked when she and Eighteen had finally closed the distanced and stood with the other girls, "…how did you two manage to pass the time without our enthralling society?"

"Oh, we got by." Linaly responded, her eyes flicking back and forth between Cassie and Cassie's bag – already could she taste one of Cassie's famous lunches. "Barely."

Faris could not help blushing deeply – after everything she'd been saying about the two of them, seeing Cassie and Eighteen again made her feel sheepish to a degree she had never dreamt of.

Cassie noticed this react and also shrewdly noted the conspicuous look of innocence on Linaly's face. "Anything happen before we arrived?" she asked mildly, teasingly pretending not to notice Linaly's interest in her bag.

"Nope. Come on, Cass, dish out the provisions before I keel over." Linaly chirped, holding out an expectant hand.

Cassie gave an inward shrug as she put down the bag and unzipped it.

"Oh, cool beans!" Linaly exclaimed as she saw a large cellophane-wrapped stack of Cassie's fish-sandwiches. "Hey, Cassie, let me help you to set the food out!"

There was a shared laugh.

Eighteen's face was light as she smiled at nothing in particular – since coming to this place she'd felt more happy and relaxed than she could remember having ever felt before.

For the moment her life had no direction, no ultimate goal, but for at least the time being she felt that it would definitely be nice to linger – a part of her wished that these moments would never fully pass.

She had no idea just how fleetingly her new life as a beach-bum was scheduled to last…nor of the terrible blow that fate even now prepared to strike her newfound happiness and contentment with.


End file.
